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Mary Anne Franks
Mary Anne Franks is an American legal scholar, author, activist, and media commentator. She is a professor of law and the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington University Law School, where her areas of expertise and teaching include First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, and law and technology. She also serves as president and Legislative and Technology Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington University Law School, Franks was the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law.
Franks is the author of The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech, which won a gold medal at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as the 2020 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Legal Studies and Excellence in Social Sciences. Her second book, Fearless Speech, was published in 2024.
Mary Anne Franks was born in Indiana to Kang Tu-Kwei, a Taiwanese woman, and Jesse Franks, an American World War II veteran who died when Mary was two years old.
After her father's death, Franks spent most of her childhood in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a location that Franks described as "not the most racially sensitive place." She attended Loyola University New Orleans, where she graduated with highest honors in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and English literature with a minor in classics.
She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1998. At the University of Oxford, she earned her M.Phil. in European literature, with distinction, in June 2001 and her D.Phil. in modern languages and literature in January 2004. Her examination field of continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, gender theory, and political theory culminated in her doctoral thesis, "Enjoying Women: Sex, Psychoanalysis, and the Political."
In 2007, Franks graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as senior executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. During her time in law school, she received several awards, including the Harvard Law School Association Alumnae Fellowship, Reginald Lewis International Internship, the Chayes International Public Service Fellow in 2005, and the National Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Law School Student Award in 2007.
Between 2004 and 2005, Franks taught courses in ethics, world religions, and introductory philosophy within the Department of Humanities at Quincy College in Massachusetts. During her time at Harvard Law School, Franks clerked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. She also worked from 2005 to 2008 as a lecturer for the Department of Social Studies and as a teaching fellow for the government, philosophy, and English departments. From 2008 to 2010, she was a Bigelow Fellow and lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School as well as a faculty affiliate for the Center for Gender Studies.
Franks taught at the University of Miami School of Law from 2010 to 2023. Between 2010 and 2015, Franks served as an associate professor of law and was promoted to professor of law in 2015. In 2013, she served as a visiting professor at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. In 2019, Franks was recognized as a Dean's Distinguished Scholar for the Profession, an honor bestowed upon University of Miami School of Law faculty members whose scholarly contributions to the legal profession are deemed significant and influential. In 2021, she was appointed to the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair "to recognize her substantial contributions and ongoing accomplishments in scholarship and advocacy at the confluence of civil rights and technology."
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Mary Anne Franks
Mary Anne Franks is an American legal scholar, author, activist, and media commentator. She is a professor of law and the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington University Law School, where her areas of expertise and teaching include First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, and law and technology. She also serves as president and Legislative and Technology Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington University Law School, Franks was the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law.
Franks is the author of The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech, which won a gold medal at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as the 2020 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Legal Studies and Excellence in Social Sciences. Her second book, Fearless Speech, was published in 2024.
Mary Anne Franks was born in Indiana to Kang Tu-Kwei, a Taiwanese woman, and Jesse Franks, an American World War II veteran who died when Mary was two years old.
After her father's death, Franks spent most of her childhood in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a location that Franks described as "not the most racially sensitive place." She attended Loyola University New Orleans, where she graduated with highest honors in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and English literature with a minor in classics.
She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1998. At the University of Oxford, she earned her M.Phil. in European literature, with distinction, in June 2001 and her D.Phil. in modern languages and literature in January 2004. Her examination field of continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, gender theory, and political theory culminated in her doctoral thesis, "Enjoying Women: Sex, Psychoanalysis, and the Political."
In 2007, Franks graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as senior executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. During her time in law school, she received several awards, including the Harvard Law School Association Alumnae Fellowship, Reginald Lewis International Internship, the Chayes International Public Service Fellow in 2005, and the National Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Law School Student Award in 2007.
Between 2004 and 2005, Franks taught courses in ethics, world religions, and introductory philosophy within the Department of Humanities at Quincy College in Massachusetts. During her time at Harvard Law School, Franks clerked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. She also worked from 2005 to 2008 as a lecturer for the Department of Social Studies and as a teaching fellow for the government, philosophy, and English departments. From 2008 to 2010, she was a Bigelow Fellow and lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School as well as a faculty affiliate for the Center for Gender Studies.
Franks taught at the University of Miami School of Law from 2010 to 2023. Between 2010 and 2015, Franks served as an associate professor of law and was promoted to professor of law in 2015. In 2013, she served as a visiting professor at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. In 2019, Franks was recognized as a Dean's Distinguished Scholar for the Profession, an honor bestowed upon University of Miami School of Law faculty members whose scholarly contributions to the legal profession are deemed significant and influential. In 2021, she was appointed to the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair "to recognize her substantial contributions and ongoing accomplishments in scholarship and advocacy at the confluence of civil rights and technology."